SELF-CULTURE : 



A LECTUBE TO TOMG MEK 



BY 

EEY. FEEDEEICK G. CLAEK, 

Pastor of the West Twesjty-third St. Presbyterian Church, New- York. 



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PUBLISHED BY THE 

NEW-YORK YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION, 
Bible House, New-York. 

1864. 







HEW YORK PUBL. LIB*, 
IN 9XCHAMOC. 



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V 



SELF-CULTUEE. 



v •» * *- * 



New-York, November 2d, 18G3. 

To the Rev. Frederick G-. Clark : 

Dear Sir : The undersigned, in behalf of themselves and 
of many others who heard your Lecture to young men last 
evening, desire to express their thanks for it and their high 
appreciation of the views and principles which it contained. 

Believing that its circulation would be serviceable, to young 
men especially, in the formation of Christian character, we 
respectfully solicit the manuscript for publication. 



Henry A. Scovell, 
W. H. McNeill, 
"W. Mackenzie, 
Br'd. T. Norris, 
J. E. Brown, 
F. Mangam, 
J. H. Burtis, 
J. A. Bennet, 
C. B. Dales, 



S. W. Stebbins, President J¥. Y. 
Young Men's Christian As- 
sociation, 

Vincent Colyer, Vice-Presi- 
dent, 

Robt. R. McBurney, Pec. Sec, 

Frank W. Ballard, 

Cephas Brainerd, 

W. C. Hickok, 

E. P. Tibbals. 



NOTE. 






This Lecture was originally prepared at the request of the 
Boston Young Men's Christian Association, and was delivered 
in Tremont Temple, Boston, on Sabbath Evening, April 15th, 
1860 ; an occasion which is associated in the author's mind 
with a delightful Christian hospitality. At the invitation of 
the New-York Young Men's Christian Association, the Lec- 
ture was repeated in the "West Twenty-third street Presby- 
terian Church, New- York, on Sabbath evening, November 1st, 
1863. The manuscript is now yielded to the press in accord- 
ance with the foregoing request, and in the humble hope 
that it will be of service in rousing our Christian young men 
to stir up the gift of God which is in them, and to make the 
most of themselves for the Church, for the Nation, and for 
God. F. G. C. 



SELF-OULTUBE. 



The idea of self is either full of danger or full of 
duty, according to our conception of it. 

The abused or perverted self is but an egotism of 
idolatry and selfishness. It is the ripe fruit of hu- 
man depravity, the motive to every injustice, the 
symbol of all unfairness and oppression. This self 
is its own god ; on its unhallowed altar the whole 
world is not too much to burn. What outrage, what 
cruelty, what heaven-provoking crime has not been 
committed under the low inspiration of serving 
self! 

On the other hand, the true idea of self, with 
which alone we wish to deal, is quite another thing. 
This is a brief name for the entire estate which God 
has given us — God's acres in man's soul — bestowed 
upon each of us with this one condition and charge : 
" Occupy till I come." It is something to come 
in possession of a farm, whose improvement must 
depend upon our industry. Around the homestead 
are spread out, acres upon acres in extent, meadow 
and pasture, marsh, river, and wood. It is surely no 
sinecure to make the most of all these. But it is 
vastly more to be put in charge of one's own soul,, 



8 SELF-CULTURE. 

" to dress it and to keep it." The trusteeship of in- 
telligence, and sensibility, and volition — of all the 

risks and all the hopes of an immortal .mind — this 
is incomparably the heaviest of all commissions. 

But such is the self whose care and culture is now 
our study. It is that mysterious world of thought 
and feeling which is at once pent up and boundless. 
Its sphere is within the chambers of the brain ; its 
outgoings, its visions, accept no boundaries. I speak 
of a gift which is no prerogative of kings or of schol- 
ars ; it knows no distinction of caste ; it is indiffer- 
ent to wealth or poverty. It is the common heritage 
of man. Like the unfenced prairie, it touches the 
air and drinks the dew of heavenly contact, with 
nothing to come between. 

I mean this conscious portraiture of Deity which 
I carry in my bosom ; alas ! how marred and strange- 
ly blurred, as by the stroke of some rude hand, yet 
still the image of God. Within the limits of this 
self what powers I discover, of desire, of responsi- 
bility, of love, of hate, of acquisition, and of God- 
like beneficence. What uprisings of impulse are 
here ! What ambitions strike their roots within 
this bosom ! And how deeply conscious is this soul 
of its Creator's care and respect ! How lavish has 
He been in means of enriching and cultivating it ! 

This self is a gift which we all receive — a domain 
which we are bound to occupy. To fail of this is to 
incur the doom of the miserable man in the parable, 
who hid his talent in the earth: "Cast ye the un- 
profitable servant into outer darkness." 



SELF-CULTUKE. 9 

It is after this interior wealth of character that 
St. Paul is reaching, when he charges his son Timo- 
thy to stir up the gift of God which is in him. 
He is feeling for the sinews of strength in the soul 
of his young disciple. He reminds him of his pious 
ancestry. He seeks to make him conscious of spir- 
itual endowments which he received by the grace 
of God in connection with his ordination. These 
gifts and endowments he is to stir up. The figure 
is that of fire, whose dull embers are to be stirred 
together and blown into a flame. It is as if he had 
said, God has done much for you, son Timothy; 
search for that interior wealth of grace and mental 
gifts which He has hidden in your bosom ; cultivate 
these ; force them up to their highest development, 
and so make the most of yourself for your race and 
for your divine Master. 

There is a splendid gift of God in every rational 
soul, however humble it may 'be. This gift includes 
all our endowments, whether spiritual or intellectual ; 
whatever we find ourselves possessed of, which may 
be used for man's good or God's glory. This gift, 
this power of usefulness, this possibility of develop- 
ment, however latent at present, is our talent which 
we must improve, and at last return with usury. 

Our subject thus takes the definite shape of Self- 
Culture, which is the life-work of every man. I de- 
sire to place this work more clearly before our minds, 
and then to consider some of the hindrances which 
we must overcome, as also the helps which we will 
need in successfully prosecuting the work. 



10 SELF-CULTUEE. 

To cultivate this self is to discover its wealth of 
soil and seed, and then to develop it. The history 
of every soul, not blighted in its growth, "will show 
a time for germ and bud, and flower and fruit. 
What sun and shade, calm and storm, drouth and 
dew perform for nature, God accomplishes in the 
soul by the service of spiritual elements, no less va- 
ried or efficient. It is safe to assert that blossom 
and fruitage are the normal destiny of every soul. 
~No tree is created to stand leafless and fruitless 
amidst surrounding life. It has some mission of 
utility, or of beauty. Its branches are to be the 
lodging-place of some birds ; its foliage is to shelter 
some traveler from the August sun, or around its 
trunk the cattle are to gather and hold their dull 
communion. The least it can do will be to stand 
alive and green, filling the place in the landscape 
which it was designed to keep. 

!Not less than this, surely, can be the mission of 
every soul. It has, or ought to have, somewhere in 
its course, a time of fruit. It has its infancy, and 
youth, and maturity ; and as surely as that God has 
created it, will he come, sooner or later, and demand 
the harvest. 

Every one of us will answer, not only for the evil 
we do, but for the loss of every fruit which a fair 
husbandry would have yielded. 

Such, then, is the self-culture which God has made 
our task. But the moment we address ourselves to 
it we encounter embarrassment. We are pressed by 
influences the most diverse and conflicting. Our 



SELF-CULTURE. 11 

experience is a struggle between hindrances and 
helps. To study these is at once our wisdom and 
our safety. I am first to speak of 

I. Hindrances to Self-Culture* 

1. The first to be considered shall be nameless 
just now. "We can afford to be generous in our ar- 
gument, and to appeal to universal experience for 
the fact which we have now in hand. If possibly a 
skeptic hears me, I will forego theological dogmas 
and walk with him a moment in the shadow of his 
own doubts. I seek his admission of a fact which 
is as plain to his senses as to my own. I would have 
him observe the strange blight and mildew which 
are seen to fasten themselves upon all human endea- 
vors. We may choose the soil, select the seed, avail 
ourselves of the best husbandry, but, alas ! where do 
we find a perfect crop ? Our greatest men and wo- 
men — philosophers, moralists, poets, statesmen — 
what are they but strange contradictions, unac- 
countable disappointments, blighted promises ? 
Grant that thev had success. Yet, over against it, 

«/ J CD J 

why must we record humiliation and failure in some 
aspects of their lives % Why can we nowhere find 
perfection ? Why so seldom any thing approaching 
it ? Why is human greatness so defective always, 
and our ideal manhood so unattainable, that a char- 
acter like Washington's stands out in history, peer- 
less in its symmetry and moral beauty ? 



12 SELF-CULTUKE. 

The poet Wordsworth wrote not only his own ex- 
perience but that of his race in those familiar lines : 

" We must needs confess 
That 'tis a thing impossible to frame 
Conceptions equal to the soul's desires ; 
And the most difficult of tasks to keep 
Heights which the soul is competent to gain, 
Man is dust : ethereal hopes are his, 
Which, when they should sustain themselves aloft, 
Want due consistency, like a pillar of smoke, 
That with majestic energy from earth 
Rises, but, having reached the thinner air, 
Melts and dissolves, and is no longer seen." 

Alas for the best of earth ! Mere nature, in her 
noblest conditions, and with her fairest opportuni- 
ties, is almost sure to leave a record of falseness, 
vagrancy, disappointment, failure. What is the 
matter ? What worm gnaws at the root ? What 
is the secret of that great law of disappointment 
which sways human endeavor? Shall I call its. 
name ? It is a monosyllable — the least of words, 
but the most mighty of all destructive agencies — It 
is Sin ! 

2. Another hindrance to self-culture is Igno- 
rance. 

I use the term in its broadest sense, as indicating 
the clouds of mystery and uncertainty which seem 
to overhang all our beginnings. The phrenologists, 
in their daily advertisements, appeal to a universal 
instinct. They say : Let no man waste his life in 
experiments after the best avocation; for we will 



SELF-CULTURE. 13 

feel of his bumps and tell him in ten minutes what 
occupation he is fitted to fill. If all this were so, 
we should at once be rid of one of the greatest em- 
barrassments in self-culture. The Bible asks the 
question : " Who can understand his errors ? " And 
experience confirms the inference that the most 
difficult of all countries to explore is the region of 
our own soul. The mind looks out in the morning 
of its hopes and undertakings to find a fog all 
around. All is uncertain. We hardlv know what 
we are, what we can do, ought to do, or where we 
shall begin. Indefiniteness, wonder, wishing, long- 
ing, hoping, groping, these are the steps up which 
we climb to all our successes. 

Impatience can not burst the door which time and 
patience are to unlock. How often hare we said to 
ourselves : What am I ? What my powers ? capa- 
bilities ? my mission ? destiny ? What shall I make 
of the mystery of self and its surroundings 1 Could 
I but lift this vail ! Could I see but a little way 
in this fog ! Could I only know what enterprises 
and endeavors might succeed, and what would only 
prove a waste of life ! Would some messenger of 
fate but touch my shoulder and whisper, "This is 
your way: success, usefulness," happiness, lie in this 
path ! " 

But no. No answer reaches us out of the mys- 
tery of our future. The impenetrable vail of igno- 
rance and uncertainty moves as we move, and ever 
hangs before our sight. Greatness and obscurity, 
power and imbecility, are alike helpless in the era- 



14 SELF-CULTUKE. 

die. He who to-day measures the heavenly dis- 
tances, and walks in the thoroughfares of science 
among the stars, once sat at his bench in school bit- 
ing his pencil over his first puzzle in arithmetic. The 
engineer who levels mountains and lifts the valley, 
making a highway for nations where once only the 
wild goat passed, can remember the time when, ig- 
norant of his genius and mission, he first traced an 
angle or a curve. 

The orator who holds the multitude spell-bound 
in the grasp of his eloquence once uttered his falter- 
ing declamation or recited his " You'd scarce expect 
one of my age," with shaking knees, upon the school- 
master's platform. And so we all, whatever we un- 
dertake, aspire to, struggle for, must enter upon our 
life-work, doubting, feeling about in the dark, ex- 
perimenting we know not how long, until experience 
shall dissipate the fogs of ignorance which mantle 
all our beginnings. 

3. And now we reach a third great embarrass- 
ment, (as at the time we judge it,) to our self-culture. 
If you please, for convenience, we will call it Hard- 
ship. • 

Who has not wondered in tracing the history of 
human success ? The way to eminence, be it lite- 
rary, political, religious, philanthropic — what a rug- 
ged path it is ! How beset it is with chasms, mo- 
rasses, deep streams, and jungles ! The world never 
makes a greater blunder than when it writes the 
path of genius a painless one. The superficial think 



SELF-CULTURE. 15 

genius an express-train to success, in which the illus- 
trious did but take their seat, with a through-ticket 
in their pocket. But they who have observed more 
carefully have learned that genius is only the power 
of work. Did we picture it, we should see a strong 
form, with muscle, and nerve, and burning eye. 
Behold him grappling with the difficulties of the 
way ; his progress is oftentimes a dead climb up 
steeps which other men dare not attempt. See him 
grasp rocks, twigs, roots ; see where he puts his foot ; 
see the strain of all the man, and the fiery purpose 
of his soul to overcome the hardships of his lot, and 
to conquer success by the sheer power of effort. 

It is due to truth just here that we reverse this 
dark cloud of hardship, and see the light of its other 
side. Doing this we must observe that difficulties 
and oppositions are often only seeming hindrances. 
Is it not a marvel that man, the greatest of creatures, 
must begin his existence in the most complete weak- 
ness and dependence ? The horse receives perfection 
of muscle and movement as a birthright. He comes 
at once to his highest success by mere brute instinct. 
But what will man attain to by the aid of only na- 
tural development ? What does he know but by at- 
tention, imitation, and study ? What can you make 
of him, as it respects real nerve and power, until he 
has been jostled from the cradle of ease by some 
rudeness? 

Hardship is, by the verdict of experience, the real 
regimen of successful effort. But we seldom recog- 
nize its beneficent mission until we gather its au- 



16 SELF-CULTURE. 

tumn fruits. Hardship is at once the cost and the 
birth-pang of that which earth and heaven value. 
So much is this the case, that we might almost ven- 
ture to graduate successes by their cost. A wild 
rose will grow anywhere ; it needs no culture, no 
care. The country is full of such flowers. But 
what is the wild rose ? Pluck it, smell it, look at it. 
It is poor, thin, colorless, odorless ; it costs nothing, 
it is worth nothing. But you hand me now an ex- 
cpiisite rose-bud. "What fragrance, what richness of 
color, what matchless beauty ! Where did you get 
it ? Tell me its history. It is one of a hundred 
seedlings which struck root in your conservatory. 
The gardener planted them, watered and watched 
them, defended them from many an onset of insect 
marauders, and out of the hundred he rejected nine- 
ty and nine as common and comparatively worth- 
less. This one rose, then, is the result of skill, time, 
and painstaking. And we have heard of a garden- 
er's putting a choice plant away in the dark, starv- 
ing it of all light and cheerfulness, until every leaf 
fell off, and it seemed about to die. And all this 
was only that afterward, when the light was ad- 
mitted, this severe handling might result in bring- 
ing forth a blossom of such rare, deep coloring, as 
could come only from those dark days. So every- 
where in human experience, and frequently in na- 
ture, hardship is the vestibule of the highest suc- 
cess. 

That magnificent oak was detained twenty years, 
perhaps, in its upward growth, in order that its root 



SELF-CULTURE. 17 

might creep around the boulder ; and thus the tree 
was anchored, so as to defy the storms of centuries. 
I see a pearl upon your bosom. What is it % It is 
the result of suffering in the oyster. It is nature's 
compensation for some wound or disease. Or I see 
a man — he is a pearl among men. Shall I tell you 
his history % He is born not only of flesh and blood, 
but of crosses and disappointments. It has been 
pithily said of the Third Napoleon, that " he went 
by St. Helena to the Tuileries." The hardships of 
his house prepared the way for his triumphs. And 
we, wherever we climb, must make hardships our 
stepping-stones. 

4. Self-culture has also to combat with moebid 

EXPEEIENCE. 

I will call this the swamp-land of the soul. You 
will find it everywhere. And over this swamp a 
mist is hovering which hides the mire in which we 
sink. I will ask a hundred persons, Were you ever 
morbid % And, possibly, all will answer, ~No. But I 
will watch their mental movements ; I will scan the 
lights and shades which checker their experience, 
until, by and by, it is a chance if I do not convict 
them all of morbid feeling. 

I passed my boyhood within sight of " Saddle 
Back," a spur of the Green Mountains. As seen 
from the village, it seemed one dry, solid rock. I 
climbed it once. As I went up I thought to find a 
sunny ridge, from which I should see the kingdoms 
of the world at my feet. But on reaching the top, 



18 SELF-CULTUKE. 

I had gone but a little way, before I was lost in a 
morass, where the stunted trees seemed tottering 
with malaria, and not an element of cheerfulness or 
beauty redeemed the scene. 

Such are the mountain-tops of human greatness. 
Great men, like great mountains, have their swamp- 
land. The Country Parson has a chapter in one 
of his volumes "Concerning Screws" or damaged 
horses ; and his position is, that all men are screws 
in some sense. " There is something truly fearful,'' 
he remarks, " when we find that clearest-headed and 
soberest-hearted of men, the great Bishop Butler, 
telling us that all his life long he was struggling with 
horrible morbid suggestions, (devilish is what he 
calls them,) which, but for being constantly held in 
check with the severest effort of his nature, would 
have driven him mad. You who know your own 
horse, know that you dare not trot him hard down- 
hill. And you who know your own mind and heart, 
know that there are some things of which you dare 
not think — thoughts on which your only safety is 
resolutely to turn your back." 

Probably most j^ersons are, at some times, morbid 
in some things. The eyes are green, the spirits are 
depressed ; every thing is sombre, suspicious, hostile. 
I will show you this mental disease in that college 
student, who is not seen on the play-ground, but 
prefers to pass his leisure in wandering alone by 
the brook and in the grove. He is fascinated by the 
curious calm of his own thoughts and by the sickly 
refinement of his isolated experience. He is in 



SELF-CULTURE. 19 

great danger, but does not know it. Very likely all 
his trouble is physical, and may be resolved into too 
much veal, hot bread, and coffee. But he is spell- 
bound, and, as he wanders in his own poor company, 
he may count himself fortunate if he does not meet 
the devil of Melancholy, who will leave a mark on 
him for life. 

What is Melancholy ? It is a fallen angel, bring- 
ing in its fall some strange counterfeits of heaven. 
It wraps itself in gentleness, and solitude, and 
sickly love, and thus eats up the spirit's joy. There 
is a strange mixture of pain and pleasure in its 
stealthy working. It breaks friendship with the 
world, which seems, in all its diversity of toil and 
passion, to be only and always false. Its morbid 
vision sees what is not to be seen — offense, slight, 
and wrong, where none were meant. Behind the 
sombre curtains of the soul, all outward beauty 
grows shaded and deformed. The sky is not blue, 
the earth is not green, flowers are not beautiful nor 
fragrant; music is always minor, and dull at that. 
Birds, beasts, insects, seem wicked, because they per- 
sist in being happy. Bells always strike knells, and 
never chimes. The soul is drowned in sorrows, and 
yet can not be sure that they are any sorrows at all. 
Such was Henry Kirke White, who sang out his 
woes in strains which morbid minds revel in : 

" But though impressions calm and sad 
Thrill round my heart a holy heat, 
And I am inly glad, 



20 SELF-CULTUKE. 

The tear-drop stands in either eye, 
And yet I can not tell thee why 
I'm pleased, and yet I'm sad." 

Experiences like these may come from tempera- 
ment, or from disease, or from misfortune. Bnt 
from whatever source, this typhoid condition of the 
soul is most dangerous, and directly opposed to 
earnest endeavors and to real successes in self- 
culture. 

These are a few of the hindrances and struggles 
which will beset us in our effort to develop and 
make the most of the gift of God within us. 



II. Helps to Self-Culture. 

We turn now to notice our helps and encourage- 
ments in this work of self-culture. 

1. Of course we place Religion in advance of 
all. 

There is a power — and he who never felt it has 
yet seen it — there is a power which can grapple with 
the mysterious evils of our experience. It can re- 
veal to us at once our disease and the remedy. This 
is God's specific for our ruined nature. It brings 
just the force we need, and sets that force at work 
upon the ruin within. 

That man works at an enormous disadvantage 
who attempts to develop the powers of his soul with- 
out the influence of the Bible ; or, more exactly 
without the specific grace of the Gospel. Poor hu 



SELF-CULTURE. 21 

man nature ! I see it toiling, lifting, straining, fail- 
ing — not understanding the philosophy, not to say 
the religion of those words : " Without me ye can do 
nothing." It is like trying to master a science when 
we lack the book of rudiments, and have no formu- 
lae by which to work out the problem. lie who be- 
gins the work of self-culture with the perfection of 
human nature as his first axiom will never solve his 
problem, for he starts with a false proposition. It is 
only something from without and from above which 
can really light up our whole interior, penetrating 
every avenue and chamber with its health-giving il- 
lumination. This power alone can climb in under 
fallen arches and amidst splendid ruins, and, being 
there, is competent to repair, replace, reconsecrate 
the dishonored temple of man's soul. The business 
of this power within us is to penetrate the soul's 
heavy eyelids, to open its deaf ear, to tear off the 
cerements which enshroud the spirit. 

Christianity furnishes precisely the argument and 
the motive-power for the work of self-culture. It 
would be difficult to exaggerate the educating influ- 
ences of the Gospel. Do you ask : How can I make 
the most of myself — of body, of mind, of imagina- 
tion, of whatever powers God has given me ? I 
answer without hesitation.: Go to school to the reli- 
gion of the Bible. It is no dogmatism to assert that 
there is not in the entire range of science, of educa- 
tion, of discipline, any thing to be found that will 
so take hold on human nature, so grasp the charac- 
ter — its weakness, deformity, and disorganization — 



22 SELF-CULTUKE. 

and bring it together, part to its part, and power 
smoothly fitting into power, and build it up until 
the man shall, as it were, outgrow himself,' and be a 
miracle to himself and to others, as the power which 
resides in a divine revelation. . _ 

This influence, moreover, is the best cure for mor- 
bid experiences. Tell me not what Kirke White, or 
Cowper, or Payson were in their shaded piety, as if 
their darkness (as some imagine) were due to their 
religion ; rather tell me what they had been without 
it. There is many a chasm over which the train of 
our experience must pass ; and many a time would 
the bridge of mere human resolve crush down, were 
it not held up by the strong arches and piers of re- 
ligion. 

And were there time, what a history might we 
recite of misdirected men of genius, of gigantic in- 
tellects perverted and wrecked — brilliant stars " lost 
in the blackness of darkness forever." And all this 
for want of the stimulus, the safeguards, the protect- 
ing power of the influence which we commend. 
Religion would have fixed them in their orbit, and 
would have controlled their movements, so that 
their lives would have been as useful as they were 
illustrious. . But, alas ! the want of this educating 
power was a defect which. nothing else could supply. 

2. A legitimate self-appreciation is indispensa- 
ble to self-culture. 

This is at the farthest remove from conceit, which 
spoils any man. It is essential to real success in life 



SELF-CULTUBE. 23 

that we appreciate our life-problem. In this we 
have certain elements and quantities given, and with 
them a result to reach. Self-respect, in its highest 
sense, lies at the foundation of healthful develop- 
ment. It is important to convince every mind that 
it is sublime in its conscious being ; that to-day, its 
aspects, may be rough and unpromising, but not 
more so than once was every uncut diamond. A 
proper self-appreciation forbids the aifectation or the 
morbid feeling which says : " I am nothing, I can do 
nothing ; I have no talent, influence, or power." 
But, on the other hand, it counts up its gifts of 
mind, noting their weight and their superscription, 
like golden coin. It values whatever it possesses — 
emotions, suggestions, convictions ; these are its 
legacy. Conscience' is the telegraph, reporting back 
and forth between itself and eternity. 

Opinions are the highest forms of property, and 
better worth a struggle than the 'purse. Opinions 
are the best and most lasting growth of earth's soil. 
Beneath divine sovereignty, ideas come nearest to 
omnipotence. Ideas are giving shape to the world. 
They stretch a magic wand over rude acres, where 
once were seen only rocks, and hovels, and goats, 
and transform the scene into a " Central Park ;" and 
all this beauty is but the signature of a single mind 
upon the face of nature. Ideas shape men. I would 
plant ideas as confidently as corn. Men, as organ- 
ized in families and in nations, are but the growth 
of ideas which have been planted in the earth. If 



24 SELF-CULTURE. 

we search for it, we can find the seed-thought out of 
which empires, monarchies, republics Lave sprouted. 
From this I learn that I must appreciate the soil 
of my own soul, since I know not what precious 
germ of thought God's hand may bury there. I 
may not despise my own individuality, nor suppress 
the growth of ideas and opinions which I find spring- 
ing up in my bosom. There was a time when the 
science of astronomy was an opinion in the mind of 
Galileo, and it was demanded of him that he should 
strangle it there. There was a time when the mind 
of Luther, in his cloister, was a crucible, in which 
w T as going on in miniature, that process of discovery 
and of faith which afterward convulsed all Europe 
in the wars of the Reformation. The time was 
when Wilberforce, the philanthropist, and a few 
others, carried in their minds the germ of that great 
movement in behalf of an oppressed race, which 
makes one of the brightest pages of British history. 
A normal self-appreciation, then, demands not only 
the life but the growth of individual convictions. 
And' yet we must remember that, while opinions 
have their right and their responsibility, they have 
also their cost. Let no man covet the luxury of 
private opinions or of fixed principles who grudges 
their price. Wilberforce was once broaching his 
benevolent schemes to a nobleman ; the listener 
heard him through, and answered by pointing to a 
picture of the Crucifixion, saying : " That is what 
reformers come to !" It was a great fact ; in some 
sense as true to-day as ever. Yet, whoever would 



SELF-CTTLTUKE. 25 

be sure of the best self-culture must consider that 
his principles are his own and God's best investment 
in his being. If he suppress his individuality he 
extinguishes his mental life and dries up all the 
juices of his soul. While he whose life propounds 
or illustrates one true principle has not lived in 
vain. 

3. Closely akin to this quality of self-apprecia- 
tion is that of Courage. 

This, too, is essential to self-culture. The root of 
the word is " Coeur," heart, soul. It is not mere 
physical instinct. It is not the spirit of an Arnold, 
of whom it was said that he was brave in proportion 
as he was without thought. Courage is rather that 
deep conviction, or that solid purpose, which gathers 
strength by delay. We are told that icebergs in the 
Polar seas are seen moving northward, sometimes in 
the face of strong tides and winds setting toward 
the south. This movement is explained by the fact 
of deep under-currents running at the base of the 
ice-mountain, and moving with irresistible power. 
So the real courage of the soul is 'a power which 
stems and goes counter to superficial tides. It is a 
principle of self-propulsion, moving in the direction 
of reason, and conscience, and heart. It is that rare 
power of the soul which is able to say of a proposed 
undertaking, or of a contested position : " It may be 
difficult, it may be costly, or it may be odd, hut it is 
right, and, Cod helping, I dare to do it." One of 
the greatest tests of courage is to dare to be one's 
2 



26 SELF-CULTUEE. 

self — to stand in one's own true position, accepting 
one's own personality, addressing one's self to his 
own responsibilities — envying none, imitating none. 
Whatever any of ns accomplish must be done in 
spite of shadows, floating like clouds over us. To- 
day we are shaded by the great reputation of men 
whose profession we choose ; to morrow by the shad- 
ows of our superiors in mental or moral qualities ; 
then comes the shadow of conventionalism, or fash- 
ion, whose motto is : " Do, forbear, or suffer any 
thing rather than be odd." We next find the shadow 
of morbid self-depreciation, and then of constitu- 
tional diffidence. But true courage, working in the 
paths of self-culture, must be indifferent to all these 
shadows, intent only upon doing its work and ful- 
filling its mission. 

4. One more item must be mentioned among 
our helps to self-culture ; it is Patience. 

It is the principle which says, in every honest 
pursuit : " I bide my time." Patience is faith in 
truth, in effort, in great laws leading on to success. 
It is the principle which the sapling oak uncon- 
sciously illustrates as it grows side by side with the 
sunflower. The ephemeral plant will out-top it, 
stretching out its great arms in derision, laughing 
with its big round face at the slow creeping oak ; 
but that oak will attend the funeral of many gene- 
rations of sun-flowers, drawing its very life* from the 
loam which constitutes their grave. Patience with 
ourselves, patience with others, patience with divine 



SELF-CULTURE. 27 

providence, this is the secret of success. Patience 
lives in the conviction that truth and right are 
strong, and will yet have their day. It is no less 
sure that wrong is weak, and that, however strong 
to-day, its power and light will go out in utter dark- 
ness by and by. It remembers the old story of 
Bessus and the birds' nests. He was seen one day 
by his neighbors pulling down some nests that were 
built near his room. He gave as a reason for this 
conduct that " the voice of the birds was insupport- 
able, as they never ceased twitting him of the mur- 
der of his father ;" a crime which had been con- 
cealed for many years, of which he had never been 
suspected, and which would probably have been a 
secret till the Judgment had not the confession been 
wrung from him by the ministry of birds, whose in- 
nocence and mutual care stirred in his breast the 
avenging fires of remorse. 

" Thus doth sensitive conscience quicken thought, 
Lending reproachful voices to a breeze, 
Keen lightning to a look." 

If we can only be patient we shall come to our 
own growth, and we shall see the full growth of 
right around us. Difficulties will disappear, and 
mysteries will solve themselves ; the right will tri- 
umph, and we shall find that 



28 SELF-CULTUEE. 

" It ever is weak falsehood's destiny ; 
That her thick mask turns crystal, to let through 
The unsuspicious eyes of honesty." 

Patience is the greatest of virtues, and often it 
serves as the Indian summer, which ripens the tardy 
harvests of other qualities. Whatever we do, or 
possess, we can not dispense with patience. In our 
interior self-culture we may plough, harrow, and 
sow ; but if we can not wait we shall never use the 
sickle. This is the hardest of lessons always. The 
mill of God grinds too slowly for us all. We know 
not how to wait the " due time " of Providence in 
the great issues and interests of the world ; but the 
hardest task of patience is to accept God's way and 
to wait God's time in our own souls. 

I trust we have at least reached some fair appre- 
ciation of the importance of our theme, whatever 
may be thought of the discussion. 

It would be curious, and yet sad, to estimate how 
much of real manhood, what proportion of the best 
forces of our nature is held in check and lost in the 
real results of life, through failure in this direction. 
How many a sapling in moral power might grow to 
the stature of an oak under the stimulus of a legiti- 
mate self-culture. There is many a tree which 
stands half dead upon the lawn, bark-bound, and 
ready to burst with its pent-up vitality, which wants 
but a few gashes of the gardener's knife to relieve 
its plethora and bring it to perfection. 



SELF-CULTURE. 29 

So the world is full of men bark-bound, unde- 
veloped, timid, unconscious of their power, to whom 
a real self-development would be the best of boons, 
as also a real increase of the world's moral wealth. 

Let every one remember, then, that he is a growth, 
and not a thing. We owe it to ourselves, to our 
country, to our God, that we make the most and the 
best of the talents committed to us. We are fairly 
warned that God will call for the usury of the one 
talent as well as of the five ; and our encourage- 
ment is all-sufficient in the assurance that every real 
tree of righteousness, however small, if duly cul- 
tured, shall bud and blossom in due time, and, at 
last, drop its fruit in Paradise. 

Our subject could never be untimely ; it is spe- 
cially pertinent now, since never was the world in 
greater need of men — real, living men — with souls 
within them to guide their feet and move their 
hands. O ye young men ! who are but half awake 
to your responsibilities, gird yourselves to your work. 
Will you muse life away ? Is it a time to sleep when 
the whole earth is rocked and shaken by great is- 
sues, in which you have a part ? And you, Christian 
young men, who have no place in God's vineyard, 
whose names are not on the roll-book of earnest 
workers for Christ, will you not repent of your in- 
action, and now throw yourselves into the work to 
which God's grace has called you ? The vows of 
God are on you ! Can you longer play with shad- 
ows when such tremendous interests are calling 
you to awake ? Be advised to live in earnest, and to 



30 SELF-CULTUKE. 

fill up what remains of life with hard work for your 
Master ! Go quickly to the vineyard, and as you 
go, recite to yourselves the stirring words of the 
poet : 

"I have done at length with dreaming; henceforth, thou 
soul of mine, 

Thou must take up sword and gauntlet, waging warfare most 
divine. 

Life is struggle, combat, victory ! wherefore have I slumber- 
ed on, 

With my forces all unmarshaled, with my weapons all un- 
drawn ? 

Oh ! how many a glorious record had the angels of me kept 

Had I done instead of doubted — had I warred instead of 
wept ! 

Yet my soul, look not behind thee ! thou hast work to do at 
last ; 

Let the brave toil of the present overarch the crumbled past ! 

Build thy great acts high and higher, build them on the con- 
quered sod, 

Where thy weakness first fell bleeding, and thy first prayer 
rose to God." 



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OPEN FROM 8 O'CLOCK A.M., TO 10 O'CLOCK P.M., DAILY, 

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MONTHLY MEETINQS. 

The Stated Monthly Meetings of the Association are held on 
the Fourth Monday Evening of each month, at the Rooms of the 
Association. 

The Stated Monthly Meetings of the Board of Managers are 
held on the Second Wednesday Evening of each month, at the 
Rooms. 

The Regular Prayer Meeting of the Association, every Thursday 
Evening, at the Rooms. 

Members changing their residences will please notify the Re- 
cording Secretary, R. R. McBurney, at the Rooms. 



ALL YOUNG MEN, especially STRANGERS, are cordially in- 
vited to visit the Rooms, and attend the meetings of the Association. 



Donations of Funds for the Association, or Books for the Library, 
addressed to Verranus Morse, M.D., Treasurer, will be gratefully 
received at the Rooms. 

All Communications in regard to the Association should be 
addressed to 

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Corresponding Secretary, 

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